Scottish National party Members continue to support this Bill, and we support each of the Lords amendments. Notwithstanding the rather dizzying pinball rattle of interventions that went on between the Minister, the shadow Minister and the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose), I will be a bit of a traditionalist stick-in-the-mud and stick to the wording in the amendments and the Bill, no matter what references might be made subsequently to the ghosts of debates past in Hansard.
On Lords amendment 9 and “proportionate” versus “appropriate”, it might seem to people outside this Chamber that we are dancing on a pinhead, but such distinctions matter. It is important that decisions of the Competition and Markets Authority should be allowed to stand wherever they deserve to, but that means not allowing unnecessary wriggle room to creep in for entities with deep pockets to challenge decisions not on the basis of principle, but on the grounds of what those entities consider proportionate. We consider that replacing the word “proportionate” is appropriate in this case, and we support the Lords amendment on that basis.
Lords amendment 13 reinserts the word “indispensable”. As the shadow Minister said, that term is well understood in competition law, but it also happens to be proportionate
and appropriate in this case. It is entirely possible to envisage anti-competitive behaviour that can bring about consumer benefit either as a direct or indirect consequence, but we are clear that any benefits that arise should be such that they cannot be done without or forgone and that the test should be set accordingly.
With Lords amendments 26, 28, 31 and 32, we have believed throughout the Bill’s passage that the judicial review level is the appropriate appeals standard, rather than a full merits review. That is why we support those Lords amendments.
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Finally, amendment 104 would introduce new requirements on secondary ticketing. We have heard in a number of interventions about the frankly astronomical, larcenous, almost confiscatory charges that are put on some tickets for certain events in the secondary market. It is important to note that it is not just about the price of the ticket; a considerable set of other economic choices go on around the purchasing of a ticket, including travel to and from the gig, the other tickets that people are buying, accommodation and food and drink. It is a huge financial and emotional investment for many families to go to some of those events, whether they are the highest profile events or something just of particular interest to that family or friendship group. We should be doing our utmost to provide the best protections for people who seek to achieve these experiences when spending their hard-earned money.
The Minister has announced a review of secondary ticketing to report in nine months’ time. I will not be as churlish as the shadow Minister; I can muster at least two cheers for that, although the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones) was right that this Government are unlikely to be in place to carry through the recommendations if they report on a nine-month timescale. The House should be in doubt that the course of action before us today that could have the greatest impact on the secondary ticket market would be to pass the modest, reasonable recommendations before us in Lords amendment 104.
I will draw my remarks to a close. I hope that this is the last time we see this Bill coming through this Chamber. As I say, we support the Bill, but it is not beyond improvement, even at this late stage. In our view, it could certainly be improved, were the Government simply to do the right thing and accept the amendments before us today.